Comments on: Reactions To Ahmadinejad Interview Pouring In

[houdini991]

I find it funny that Wallace didn't mention a glaring human rights issue... Iran executes gay people. If a country had a genocidal policy of executing all black people, or all jewish people, or all white people, we would immediately cut diplomatic ties with them. And yet if gay people are mandatorily murdered, nobody seems to care. We still have diplomatic ties to countries like Saudi Arabia, where being gay will get you beheaded. Why don't we care? Why would Mr. Wallace not even think to mention this? All the people who are charmed by Mr. Ahmadinejad's gentility need to remember this image: http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jul/teens-execution-iran.jpg

[innov8ion]

Western philosophy believes there can be no virtue unless it is predicated by the freedom to choose it. On the other hand, Islamic fundamentalists undermine the possibility of virtue; for coerced virtues are not virtues at all. WW III has begun. It began slowly with the advent of airplanes, tv, movies, music, and the internet. As the world became smaller, cultures began to intermingle. The terrorism we see results from the Islamic fundamentalists's resistance to the cultural change of society. To maintain the status quo, the fundamentalist goal is to radicalize Islamic society. One of their tactics is to use Israel as a scapegoat to demonize the West. Iran has succeeded in radicalizing the Palestinian Authority which is now controlled by Hamas. Lebanon is next as we see Hezbollah gaining traction. Iran is targeting Iraq now in its promotion of sectarian violence leading to a Civil War and future radicalization. This trend will continue until a cataclysmic war is reached. Islam respects the autonomy of the individual soul. Salvation, for Muslims no less than for Jews and Christians, is based on the soul freely choosing to follow God. And because freedom is the necessary pre-condition for virtue, we can assert that our free society is not simply richer, more varied and more tolerant; it is also morally superior to fundamentalists' version of Islamic society. Muslims, only you can stop WW III. Regain the freedom to be virtuous once again.

[kurtkurthart]

I wasn't the only one who cringed at the behavior of Mike Wallace. A journalist should be objective & neutral when doing his work, and he was anything but. Like others have commented, he was the perfect example of what the Iranian president was describing America to be-- arrogant, not open-minded, and condescending. What a shame that this is who conducted this interview given the opportunity for such important communication. Some posts are saying that we should never give a platform to someone like Amahdinijad, since he is a "terrorist". Even if he were, it doesn't matter. If we want to reach a harmonious existence with middle eastern countries, we need to get over our own self-righteousness. We simply can't go to war with every nation that runs counter to our views. By doing that, we stir up more and more anger and it can only lead to our own destruction. We need to treat this situation with strategy and long sighted thinking. Even if we can't stand the views & actions of other countries, we need to use diplomacy to negotiate. Suppose Iran is building nuclear weapons to blow us up. Would we better off going to war with them, thereby feeding the swell of terrorism against us or would it be better to let them build nuclear weaponry and use diplomacy to prevent them needing/wanting to use it against us? After the Iraq experience, it's easy to see that diplomacy is the answer. I'm glad communication has been started by Amahdinijad. Let's not drop the ball.

I forgot about Mike's accusations about Iran arming Hezbolla! And then Mike's disbelief that America was accused by Iran's president of arming Israel! Dead people remain dead people no matter who supplies the arms, and if America, under this president, is not a predominent arms supplier and war profiteer, is not a nation involved in a preemptive, unprovoked, unresolvable quagmire of a war in Iraq, with another ongoing, but reasonable war in Afghanistan where the terrorists were actually trained by Osama to attack America on 9/11, while at the same time supporting and supplying Israel in a war against Hezbolla and the Palestinians, in hopes of soon blowing Iran off the map, then I don't know what a country devoted to war is! Of course, we're really not at war, because congress has never declared it. And, why hasn't congress declared war? Because then the Geneva Conventions would apply, then all of America's detainees would have to have access to the Red Cross and to lawyers and their names would have to be released to the public, whether in Guantanemo, Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan or some of the other countries that allow torture. Doesn't Mike Wallace watch C-SPAN? The rest of the thinking world does, and wherever America has troops and arms, those people being killed blame America for eschewing diplomacy, and advocating WAR wherever it can. Tsirois52

Well, Mike Wallace was told by the Iranian president that he wasn't being an interviewer; that while the interviewer asked questions several minutes long, the interviewee was expected to give only yes or no, a, b, c or d answers; that perhaps the interviewer didn't like the answers. America is deaf, and the old ears of the current interviewers such as Mike Wallace only show the entire world how deaf and prejudiced Americans can be. I thought that the Iranian president really tried to give full answers, really tried to ask for dialog with America, and, really showed just how savey he was by insisting that the entire interview be shown on C-SPAN so that whatever CBS decided to "edit," the world could witness the unedited version online and globally. I tried, as an American, not to keep cringing as Mike Wallace arrogantly ignored the words spoken by the president of a country, demeaning his efforts over and over. Are Americans arrogant? Well, our president is, and, so is Mike Wallace. I feared Iran's president before this interview, now I fear how this interview will fuel the terrorists; how the demeaning and deafness of Mr. Wallace for any president of any country was tolerated by the producers of CBS. C-SPAN will repeat both the edited and the unedited versions no only again at 11PM ET tonight and probably online viewing will be available. Thank you, TSIROIS52

[reuben110-2009]

Watch how the anti-Iranian propagnda now steps up a gear or two on the back of this interview, amongst our news networks, the powerful Jewish influence in the media will be used to pour water of what is a wild-fire of what is percieved as a unprecedented boost of favourable opinion towards Ahmadinejad.No one seemed to be demostrating outside CBS after learning that the interview was going to be aired. After yesterdays masterclass by the Iranian President, what now follows is Bush-esque propaganda littered across the face of the media. They will think twice before we get another Ahmadinejd inteview.

[reuben110-2009]

vmroad, would it be a believable phrase, had it left the mouth of our Preseident?....According to many across the world and domestically given our current ratings of him..he too i a Lunatic! Its got nothing to do with terrorism supporters voicing their feelings. Just a common global consensus, minus us and Israel.

[vmroad089]

Well, it's pretty obvious we have terrorist sympathizers voicing their feelings here. He said, Quote: "All have the right to live in peace and harmony." If only he really believed that! LUNATIC!

[reuben110-2009]

Cont... Having initially been appauled that the man was going to be given a platform to speak. In hindsight it appears rightly so. To the average neutral, arguements such as Germany as the ones who should have granted Jews their rightful state, as it was the German people who failed to rise to the propaganda that allowed for one of the greatest tragedies the world has ever seen to take place.No palestinians were involved in that process,yet they are the ones who have paid the price, and given Israels global reputation(Not US) as a sedistic state,its been a heavy one. Such arguments like this one must be highly infuriating in the eyes of some, and very logical in the eyes of others. This hasn't turned out to be very good PR for us. And to top it off not only is our reputable journalist outclassed, he is reminded of his anger by Ahmadinejad, and asked such questions as what are you trying to get me to say, are horrid questions to be asked by an interviewee from a journalistic perspective. No wonder there is technical difficulties accessing the video of the clips of the interview, and the actual interview on this site.

[vmroad089]

I am watching the rerun of the interview on C-SPan. He refuses to answer direct questions. He runs amuck with his answers. He lies and will not admit onc ounce of truth. He is a lunatic, plain and simple. I only wonder why such a strong believer of the Islam faith wears no turban? Is he attempting a look of civility?